1 O Word of God incarnate,O Wisdom from on high,O Truth unchanged, unchanging,O Light of our dark sky:we praise you for the radiancethat from the Scripture's page,a lantern to our footsteps,shines on from age to age.

2 The church from you, dear Master,received the gift divine;and still that light is liftedo'er all the earth to shine.It is the chart and compassthat all life's voyage through,mid mists and rocks and quicksands,still guides, O Christ, to you.

I found two versions for the third verse:The Scripture is a banner before God’s host unfurled;It is a shining Beacon above the darkling world.It is the Chart and Compass that over life’s surging tide,Mid mists and rocks and quicksands, to You, O Christ, will guide.

OR this one which we sing in our churchIt floateth like a banner Before God’s host unfurled;It shineth like a beacon Above the darkling world;It is the chart and compass That, o’er life’s surging sea,’Mid mists and rocks and quicksands Still guide, O Christ, to Thee.

4 O make your church, dear Savior,a lamp of burnished goldto bear before the nationsyour true light as of old.O teach your wandering pilgrimsby this our path to tracetill, clouds and darkness ended,we see you face to face.

Written by William Walsham How who was the son of William Wybergh How. He was born Dec. 13, 1823, at Shrewsbury, and educated at Shrewsbury School and Wadham College, Oxford (B.A. 1845).

He eventually became a bishop as well as an author of several books such as the Commentary of the Four Gospels and Plain Words for Children.

He was known as the Poor Man's Bishop as he chose to serve among the slums of London, rejecting offers to serve in prestigious churches.

How wrote 54 hymns altogether. He said, “A good hymn should be like a good prayer—simple, real, earnest, and reverent.” (source)

Did you know that pretty soon I'll be heading off for a vacation? Yes! It's that time of year again and I'm looking forward to getting away. :) We are heading up to Grundy Lake which the boys really love going to. Fishing, kayaking, swimming, trails to walk and more.

BUT.... it's a four and a half hour drive! I'll have two boys to keep busy, and I am sure that when YOU go on vacation you will have children that need something to do as well. We can play the alphabet game, the cow game and how many _____ can you find type of games. BUT it's good to have quieter things they can do as well. Enter therein a couple of vacation help books.

I don't know if you are going to take a trip to Toronto, but if you do and you want your children to know something about Ontario's Capital, this book Totally Toronto will definitely get the ball rolling. It is filled with all sorts of activities to engage your children, Dot to dot, fill in the blank, word find, decoding secret messages and more.

It's a nice sized book (8.5 by 11) with all images well away from the edges of the page, making it ideal to work on wherever you are. 62 pages of fun for your children. I would say its geared to 6-10 year olds.

It starts off with tattoo, 2 pages each of two sets of designs. None of them are scary monsters, they actually look pretty friendly. :)

This is followed by 32 pages of monster activities. From colouring to drawing pictures to seek and find and more. A fun little book about 9 x 5 inches. Easy to take along as it lies flat with pages that would come out easily if needed. This book is good for younger children.

So what kind of books have you found to help your children while away the hours on the road? Do you let them get lost in their tablets or delve into the lives of people in their reading books, or do you also provide activity books?

As I sit here pondering that word, what comes to mind Papa and Mama, is how God tells us to hide his word in our hearts.

To write them down in the hidden resources of our minds and hearts.

Hide his word.

And I think about that and it comes to mind about how out of our hearts comes our speech, and how our speech shows the state of our hearts and I'm humbled, and shamed and thinking to myself that I haven't hid enough of God's word in my heart.

Do you feel the same?

Do you hear what comes out of your mouths sometimes and wonder to yourself.. is that really me speaking? Am I really a child of God if I can say such things?

It's a struggle for me. Watching my tongue, The book of James speaks to this truth as well, tame the tongue because it steers the ship.

And it inspires me and perhaps it also inspires you to think on ways and find ways to hide God's word in your heart. To find ways to keep that tongue tamed.

What so often works well for me is to repeat a verse in my head until it turns into a song.

I recently read a blog post about a lady talking about purpose and how so often we as women misunderstand what our purpose truly is. I found it an interesting read and you can find it here.

It brought me back to a song I wrote once, but it felt too personal to share with the church I was part of at the time. It was based on Esther and the chorus went like this

"For such a time as this for such a time as thiswhat purpose have for me to do?

For such a time as thisFor such a time as thisOh Lord what would you have me do?

With short verses with lines such as this "Would you have me read the bible, to the shut in down the street? Would have me give a lonely child something good to eat?

It was a song filled with questions and wonderings about what the Lord God would have of me, and a slowly dawning realization that as long as I continue to hide God's word in my heart and follow his guidance (as found in scripture) that I would be doing what he wants me to do "For such a time as this".

So what think you? What questions do you ask of God about his purpose for your life? How are you hiding God's word in your heart to help you with that?

Come join us won't you? Five minute Friday is a fun word link up party, held on Fridays. Learn more at Kate's. :)

A boy's birthday party, children needing something to do ... what can you do? I know! Give them a kit to make model spacecraft! From ages 5 to 12 they are sure to be a hit! So, let me tell you all about it.

I received a solid well made box filled with cards with space craft to make. They came with no instructions about how to make them, and at first I thought this would be a problem until I listened to the children,
"No, put that here",
"I think it goes over there"
"Hey let's check the box maybe we'll find the picture"
"Yeah, I got it!!"

12 fully illustrated spaceships that punched out well and fit together easily. See the smiles below?

I have to tell you, I did not anticipate one small spot of trouble...too many of the children wanted to make the "make it your own" ones... Tears and recriminations almost resulted until I intervened with "who is the birthday boy? Does HE want to make them?"

Who would have thunk that the plain jane colour it yourself versions would have been so downright popular?!?!?!?! Not what I anticipated.

A couple of alien figures were included as well... I think one mysteriously made it's way to an unknown residence.

As the children worked through spaceships, I thought what an excellent addition they would be to a transportation study, or a unit on outer space or aeronautics. The children, when they finished the spaceships, then took then out and starting throwing them through the air, testing out their aerodynamics... some of them surprisingly flew really well! I had a video but well.. it's gone into the nether. :(

But what it really came down to in the end was... a bunch of children having fun laughing, creating, talking and building at a birthday party, and life was good. :)

I do have to tell you that: I received this kit from Raincoast Books for free. It's called "Make your own spaceship". It was put together by Laurence King.

If you want to buy it for your own birthday party or a study unit, check out my affiliate link as follows. Doesn't cost you a dime and helps me make ends meet. :)

Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit,Into every troubled breast!Let us all in Thee inherit;Let us find that second rest.Take away our bent to sinning;Alpha and Omega be;End of faith, as its Beginning,Set our hearts at liberty.

Come, Almighty to deliver,Let us all Thy life receive;Suddenly return and never,Never more Thy temples leave.Thee we would be always blessing,Serve Thee as Thy hosts above,Pray and praise Thee without ceasing,Glory in Thy perfect love.

Finish, then, Thy new creation;Pure and spotless let us be.Let us see Thy great salvationPerfectly restored in Thee;Changed from glory into glory,Till in heaven we take our place,Till we cast our crowns before Thee,Lost in wonder, love, and praise.

I chose two different tunes to show case this hymn, neither is the tune that we sing regularly with this hymn in our church. in fact, there are six tunes this hymn is sung too! Amazing eh? For more info GO HERE. The important part is the words to the hymn though right?

Written by Charles Wesley, a prolific hymn writer, who was the 18th of 19 children, born into a musically oriented family. He could write up to 10 lines of song per day, his brother John acting as his editor (source). He was a preemie, thought to be born dead, lying still wrapped in wool for the first few weeks of his life. Initially educated by his mother, he later attended Westminster School and later Oxford.

First published in 1747 in his brother John Wesley's collection, rather dauntingly entitled Hymns for those that seek, and those that have, Redemption in the Blood of Jesus Christ. (source) Some think this song was inspired by a popular pagan song of the day "Fairest isle, all isles excelling".

He was ordained in 1735, ministering in Georgia for a year, then returning to England dejected at his lack of success, God used this time though to help the Wesley Brothers to be more alert to the state of their souls, leading them to deepen their faith. His songs were wildly popular within his Methodist denomination.

Wesley frequently composed verse while riding from Church to Church on his preaching tour, jotting down rough notes so he could transcribe them later. (source) He was a man with a poet's heart, easily taking his thoughts and putting them into verse.

When I read that Charles Wesley wrote 8,989 hymns I was staggered. That's A LOT OF music!!!! He composed some of the most memorable and lasting hymns of the church: "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "And Can It Be," "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing," "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling," "Jesus, Lover of My Soul," "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today," "Soldiers of Christ, Arise," and "Rejoice! the Lord Is King!" (source)

It's fascinating isn't it? To learn about some of these authors of hymns? :)

Take one French student who likes to read, show him a variety of books of different reading levels, have him pick one and then review it for you. Our student chose "Trouble Next Door" as his first book to read.

This the fourth book in the Carver Chronicles Series by Karen English. It is illustrated by Laura Freeman.

Book Synopsis:

In the fourth book in the Carver Chronicles series, third grader Calvin is dealing with his next door neighbors moving away-and the school bully moving in. Meanwhile, competition at the school science fair is heating up, and Calvin must decide what to do when his data doesn't prove his theory.

My 16 year old French Students review:"I started out liking this book, and then it got boring for a while. All the boy was doing was hiding, hiding, hiding. Then the story started to get interesting again and I thought, oh good, it is not going to end the way I think. The book ended with everyone so happy with each other. For me, this book, it helped me learn new words so that was good, but I don't like the happy ending. Not everything is so happy."

My Thoughts:First off you need to know that I didn't read the whole book through, I skimmed it.I liked the illustrations by Laura Freedman, they helped to tell the story.This was a great beginner book to give my student confidence in reading regular stories in English, not too hard, and not too easy. He was able to understand most of the book and what he could not was great vocabulary for him.

As I read the book I noticed that Calvin learned some important lessons about himself, about others, about what to do when an hypothesis doesn't turn out as expected and about competition. I am planning on giving this book to my son to read, I suspect he would like it, since there is science, friendship and an interesting story about Harper and his mother.

When I was younger I read a book, about people who lived in a village, where some people came to visit, and they were greeted as "Strangers from Away" and introduced to the other villagers as "one is from away".. that expression has stuck with me throughout the intervening years.

The Canadian Homeschooler is running a blog theme " Summer Learning. Ideas for how to provide learning opportunities throughout the summer. " One of the learning events we have done for the past few summers is have an international student stay with us. We work with Nacel Homestay. They do pay us a stipend to help with costs of hosting a student (extra gas, food etc.. you won't grow rich, but it more than defrays costs).

I would strongly advise anyone to try hosting a student, we have found them to be delightful young people, and it is lovely to see our homeland through their eyes.

Our student this year comes from France.

We have introduced him to the joys of archery. He told us: "I like this sport, it is harder than I thought it would be".

Working at the Foodbank helped with discussions on how Canada cares for the poor and how France does. "We do nothing like this in France, sometimes restaurants will serve meals to poor, but no one helps them. The government helps them the medicine. But no thing else, This is good to do."

He wowed my son with his Knowledge of Minecraft and Pokemon. My son has recently discovered the joy of playing Pokemon Go...and to learn that there are tons of characters yet to be discovered has him totally amazed and wanting to know more about Pokemon. :)

The beach was "too cold" for this land from southern France, but he managed to show us his form in skipping stones. I can usually get four skips to a stone, but he was regularly getting seven skips. So he is definitely much better than I am. :)

He joined us for several bike rides, and I rediscovered how much fun it is to bike with a young fellow. My hubby likes to bike faster (which is good because he pushes me), my son is learning to bike faster and our student bikes at a perfect speed with excellent control. :) He also pushes me, but in a softer way than hubby does. :)

We learned that he likes the beauty of biking in the woods and gets contemplative easily.

Camping overnight filled him with a complete joy. A time to swim (jumping off a platform several times) followed by a chance to read for an hour. Hotdogs for supper with fruit (this boy eats like I DO!!!! A first!!!) Followed by fishing.. YAY!!! A first with a rod and reel, a time to think and read. It was good and he even found it funny that a fellow got all annoyed with him for fishing in "HIS SPOT" by the river...though he was very polite and left.

Our camping trip led to a day at Niagara Falls. Fun but busy day. We stopped at the Welland Canal, good time to ask questions about how the boats come in, to listen, question, read and learn. He has progressed so much in his English since coming here.

Part of hosting a student is to help them learn English better. We are required to teach 15 hours of English in the first two weeks they are hear. Our student this year made it easy for us in his wanting to read books, in talking and asking questions about what items are called, and in his willingness to write. I won't say that every student is willing to read, write or talk well...but this student was a joy to teach.

He was able to order his own meals when we went to Niagara Falls. A first! :)

By the way... the Create Your Own Burger "is the best hamburger at a fast food place. This is SO good."

This week will bring our student having lunch out with a friend, a day at Canada's Wonderland (someone else driving), hopefully a meal at a friends house, working at the Foodbank and if nice in the afternoon a trip to the Pinery to swim or bike and maybe kayak (if we can sort that part out). And he leaves on Friday. We'll miss him, he's been a good "second son" for these past couple of weeks.

Why not try it yourself?You'll learn about another country, have the joy of seeing your land through the eyes of another (like we have BIG cars) and lots of space and the houses, they are big! You'll learn something about yourself as well, and that's an excellent thing in and of itself.

So if you have an extra bed, give it a whirl...you'll be glad you did. :) Take in a student from away, it's a good thing.

My son started reading this book, got about 1/3 of the way through and brought it to me saying "Mom, it's too catholic and the people are really mean in it!". I didn't understand what he meant so did a quick skim and read of the end of the book. I found it humourous in the ending... and the part that I skimmed showed how the plot developed and how the protaganist learned an important lesson. I thought, this book is okay, and therefore encouraged my son to give it another chance.

He did read it through, though frequently said "MOM! This book is Not funny, the people are really mean and the boy is spending all his money!!!" I have to admit, that my lad's strong sense of justice prevented him from finding anything to enjoy in this book.

Whereas my "mother" instinct said "Good book, the lad in the book learns an important lesson, and realizes that sometimes people in authority have reasons for the things they do, good teaching moment."

So it's hard for me to tell you what our end result of reviewing this book is, because it's so very mixed. :)

I would say that it depends ALOT on your children. Do they have a strong sense of justice and fair play? If so... so NOT the book to encourage your child to read. They will simply be annoyed and angry at how things turned out.

BUT if they can see beyond the underlying story and see how a group of children banded together, and how the protagonist figured out that he should have done things differently, and how it was funny how he "saved the day" in the end... then... it will be a good book for them to read. :)

You know your children best... perhaps better than I know mine in retrospect. I should have heeded his comments better BUT then I would have missed out on a great discussion with him about how people can view the same book quite differently, about how age differences can influence how one sees a book, as well as how God made us to be as people influences what we see/hear/view in a book. It's good to have those discussions and I hope is the start of many other discussions about books where we will disagree about different aspects of them.

Psalm 73:23-28 (ESV)23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;you hold my right hand.24 You guide me with your counsel,and afterward you will receive me to glory.25 Whom have I in heaven but you?And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.26 My flesh and my heart may fail,but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.28 But for me it is good to be near God;I have made the Lord God my refuge,that I may tell of all your works.